Tile and kindred material and method of making the same



Patented Oct. 2 8, 1924 UNITED s PATENT QFFLCE.

JOHN C. -MAOILDOWIE, OF'NASHUA; NEW. HAMPSHIRE, ASSIGNOR TO ASBESTOSSHIN- GLE CQMPANY, 0F NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, A CORPORATION 0']? NEW YORK.

TILE Am) m'mmnn MATERIAL AND mza'rnon OF MAKING THE em No Drawing.

To all whom it may cmwem:

Be it known that I, JOHN C. MAGILDOWIE a citizen ofjtheUnited States of America, and resident of Nashua, in the county of Hillsborough and State of New Hampshire, have vinvented newand useful Improve ments in .Tile and Kindred Materials and Methods of Making the Same, of which the following is a specification.

.My invention relates to the preparation -of tile and kindred materials, which in a stage of manufacture are plastic, and are subsequently hardened. The object of this invention is to provide a method by which such materials may be given surfaces of irregular contour, characterized by sharp,

clear-cut prominences and depresslons of diverse shapes and sizes, by which also the surface texture, or visual appearance of texture may be readily produced in variations of coarseness or roughness adapted to the situation in which the material is to be used, and by which also the geometric diversities and rugosities of contour of such surfaces may be supplemented by irregularlv and locally applied coloring matter. The invention is herein described and claimed in its aspects of method and product.

Architects, builders, and interior-decorators. both as educators and purveyors, are becoming more and more fastidious and exacting in respect to the aesthetic effectsof their designs and products, and are dissat isfied with the limltation and inadequacies of building materials as heretofore commercially produced, in the obtainment of pleasing effects. The fundamental reason for the failure of most materials in this respect lies in their relatively smooth and monotonous surface, their lack of any ob- ,vious texture, and the consequent absence of local variations in light-reflection. Many cxpedients have been triedin thedirectwn of producing patterns. regular or irregular,

' which break the undesirable smoothness and monotony of surface, and these have succeeded in proportion to the degree of departure from regularity and monotony and approach toward the fortultous irregularity of broken or weathered surfaces. The high aesthetic values of Well-weathered riven shingles, or of ceiling timbers left with adze marks untouched by the plane, ofler examples of,the effects desired not only by the specialist in aesthetics but also by the -Ap'plication filed April 2, 1923. Serial No. 629,515.

public, which is fast acquiring an educated appreciation. i

' Opposed to the aesthetic urge, the exigencies of manufacture .on a large scale, the necessity of economies and the price inevi- I tably incidental to specialties in production, have had to be taken into calculation. Broadly speaking, the invention herein described aspires to a reconciliation between the demands of the aesthetic and artistic portion of the public, and the economic limitations of the manufacturer of building materials.

A large pro ortion of building materials are plastics. rick, tile, plaster, furnish ex'- amples. These, as is well known, have physical properties which render them susceptible of receiving and retaining anysuperficial characteristics with which they may be impressed; and it is to products of this character, to tile and kindred materials, that my invention is applicable.

As a specific example of such materials,

I take the concrete tiles, composed of short asbestos fibre, sand, and hydraulic cement,

such as are made in presses, or formed in continuously emerging sheets by such machines as are described in Nortons United States Patent No. 979,548, dated December 27, 1910. Tiles or shingles of this character have thoroughly demonstrated their utility and durability, but have resisted many attempts to render them attractive and artistic in appearance. They are susceptible, to a limited extent,- of receiving coloring matter,

and have been produced in colors other than the dull gray which is natural to them. But the uniform flat and unrelieved surface of these tiles, however colored, and whether laid in one, or several colors on a roof, has hitherto rendered it impossible to obtain wholly satisfactory effects. Impression of regular patterns, 'such as are produced by means of wire mesh, has improved the appearance of these tiles a'little, but the regularity itself of such impressed contours, and the necessarily slight departure thereof fromthe usual smooth surface has placed such limitations on the shadow-producing, reflecting, and light-dispersing properties of the product that such expedients cannot be regarded as successful in any substantial degree.

In order to produce the desired pronounced, irregular, clear-cut impressions with similarly characterized mutual boundaries in the form of ridges and prominences, in the material chosen to illustrate my invention, I spread upon the upper surface of the tile-material, while it is still plastic and impressible, a layer of heterogeneously shaped and sized fragments or granules of solid material, selecting orpreparing this granular material with a view to its free separation from the tile after the latter has become hardened. For tiles of the specific character designated, I have found that granular common salt, commercial rocksalt, serves the purpose excellently. The salt-crystals or granules are spread upon the tile-material in the Norton machine after it has been Wetted therein, preferably at such a point or in such manner that the secondary pressure roll does not come in contact with the salt, which is liable to be picked up by the roll. If the salt is spread on the material before passage under the secondary pressure roll, a scraper should be provided toremove salt crystals which cling to the roll, and redeposit them on the tile material. This material is sutliciently soft and plastic on emergence from the machine to permit the salt crystals to be embedded in its surface when the tile squares are, as usual, placed in setting or curing presses with steel sheets alternating with the tile-squares. The cement which forms part of the concrete mixture of which the tiles are composed, sets until the tiles assembled in stacks under pressure in the curing presses, have become hard. Then the tiles are washed in water which liquefies the salt granules, loosening them from their embedment in the tile surface, which after removal of the granules presents a surface which is a true cast or matrix of the originally applied and embedded discrete layer of solid particles.

This surface, depending for its texture on the size and shape of the solid granules which produced the cast or matrix, may 'be given any desired degree of rugosity or abruptness ofcontours, simply by the selection of the granules which are used to form' the removable la er. For tiles or kindred material to be used in an interior, when the usual distance of the material from an oblar e re ection, throws local shadows of diverse server is relatively small, the desired effect may be obtained with granules screened through a relatively fine mesh; whereas for exteriors and roofing, a much coarser granular material may be used, to produce a correspondingly bold solid contour in the sur-- face produced.

A surface which is a cast or matrix of dive'rsely sized and shaped particles of solid material, originally laid as a discrete layer upon and embedded in it, resents to light falling upon it from any direction, a very diversity of points and inclinations for sizes and shapes, and thus in efi'ect diversifies the resultant color impression made upon the observer.

All monotony of visual impression is eliminated, the ,total impression is pleasing, for the same fundamental reason thatthe impression imparted by old and weather surfaces is agreeable and satisfying to the aesthetic sense.

Be it remembered, that the instance above described, of a plastic asbestos-concrete tile and an embedded impression-layer of rock salt crystals, is given only as representative of my invention. The specific tile mentioned is for this purpose representative of any product or material which is plastic an impressionable at one stage, and hardened at a later stage, of manufacture, and all materials similarly characterized are kindred to tiles and similarly susceptibleto surfacing by the method described.

Likewise, rock salt crystals represent any granular or fragmentary material which either by its natural constitution or by reason of artificial preparation is in whole, or superficially, liquefiable. Solubility of such particles, in respect to the environment here involved. is one aspect or form of liquefiability. For the purposes of release from their seats of embedment, superficial liquefiability or solubility is substantially the same as complete liquefiability or solubility.

. F or instance, granules of crushed stone, superficially coated with thin films of paraffin, would serve the purpose and perform the function, when embedded as a layer in the surface of plastic material, described in connection with the specifically different rock-salt material, because the paralfin coating, if heated, would liquefy and allow the stone granules to unseat themselves from the cast or matrix formed in the plastic material. The prepared granules would be liquefiable to the extent that liquefaction is functionally necessary to the method. Granules of paraffin alone, crushed when quite cold and relatively brittle, will serve the same purpose in the same wa thus the superficially liquefiable granu e is the full equivalent'of a completely liquefiable granule, in the relationship under consideration.

Likewise, granules in themselves insoluble, but superficially coated with a soluble substance, will be released when a solvent of the su erficial coating is applied; superficial so ubility is, for the purposes of the method, equivalent to complete solubility.

The capability of the described method of producting widely diversified effects will now be readily understood. If, for instance, a layer of reddish granules, insoluble or nonliquefiable as a whole, be embedded in the surface of the plastic tile or kindred material; and if the supply of granules of which the layer is composed has been in part only coated with a liquefiable or soluble film, when the layer is loosened from The particles destined to remainattached to the material may be made of coloring material which acts specifically in a different manner. For instance, if iron filings, or brass filings, are irregularly distributed in the supply of granular bodies which form the impressed layer, these remain when the granules themselves are released, and thereafter, by oxidation or other chemical action produce" spots and patches of color in the surfaces of the cast or matrix itself, with optical efl'ects ofthe same general character as have been alluded to.

In this connection, the specific manner in which materials operate to produce color effects is immaterial. The coloring material may perform this function by reason of its own inherent and permanent coloration,

or it may be of such a character as to under; go color change by exposure, or it may act as a stain upon and altering the color of the tile-material.

The use of a water-soluble salt granule for the impressed layers is of value for other reasons. Many plastic materials, after hardening, efiloresce; the patches of efiores-v cence may be considered undesirable (though it is quite conceivable that the reverse opinion would hold in some cases) and if so, it is of value to the maker or user that efllorescence should be eliminated or corrected. I The action of rock-salt or other water soluble crystals in this situaton has been observed to have the effect of preventing efflorescence after the tile or kindred material is a finished product. Probably the mois ture in the surrounding air produces Suficient superficial dellquescence of the soluble crystals to form a liquid film" in contact with the plastic material, into which film the efilorescent material, which is always close to the surface, is absorbed, possibly by osmotic action, ossibly by electrolysis, since the setting or iardening of many plastic materials involved chemical actions Be this as it may, tile material surfaced by embed ment of a layer of water soluble granules has been observed to be singularly free from efllorescence on the matrix-surface.

Apart from the aesthetic values which are the chief object of the above described invention, the product characterized by a e color and light effects produced .dred material, characterized surface which is a cast or matrix of a discrete layer of diversely shaped and sized solid granules possesses practical and purely utilitarian merits. The septa between the depressions of the cast are steep sided and shar in outline, they may in many cases over ang the adjacent depression; consequently the surface as awhole, when the material is laid as tile or shingle on a pitchroof, will hold snow tenaciously and prevent snow-slides. For the same reason, this material provides a very'secure footing to a person having to walk upon the roof which it covers.

If it be objected, that .such a surface is defective because of its capacity for collecting dirt, the rejoinder is, that this very capacity is a virtue rather than a defect, because the main object, of producing a surface of irregularly diversified light and color effect is served rather than defeated by the collection of dust and dirt, which not only will. produce desirable irregular patches of contrasting color and light-reflecting capacity, but will also (being in large part of earthy matter) facilitate the growth of lichen and other vegetable organisms,and enable the building to acquire a pleasing weathered eflect more quickly than could otherwise be the-case.

I claim:

1. The method of surfacing tile and kindred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material While plastic a layer of solid particles which are liquefiable superficially at least, hardening the material with the said layer embedded in it. and thereafter separating from the material the said layer by liquefaction of the particles thereof.

2. The method of surfacing tile and kin- .dred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material while plastic a layer of solid particles which are soluble superficially at least, hardening the material with the said layer embedded in it, and thereafter separating from the material the said layer by solution of the particles thereoffi Y a 3. The method of surfacin tile and kinby embedding in the surface of the material while plastic a layer of soluble solid particles, hardening the material with the said layer embedded in it, and thereafter dissolving the particles ofsaid layer.

4. The method of surfacing tile and kindred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material while plastic a layer of soluble salt-crystals, hardening the material with the said layer embedde in it, and thereafter dissolving the crystals of said layer.- A

5. The method of surfacing tile and kin; dred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material while plastic a layer of diversely sized and shaped solid particles which are liquefiable superficially at least, hardening the material with the said layer embedded in it, and thereafter separating from the material the said layer by liquefaction of the particles thereof.

6. The method of surfacing tile and kindred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material while lastic a layer of diversely sized and sha e solid particles which are soluble super cially at least, hardening layer embedded in it, and thereafter separating from the material the said layer by solution of the particles thereof,

7. The method of surfacing tile and kindred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material while plastic a layer of diversely sized and shaped soluble solid articles, hardening the material with the said layer embedded in it, and thereafter dissolving the particles of said layer.

8. The method of surfacing tile and kindred material s, characterized by mbedding in the surface of the material while plastic a layer of diversely sized and shaped soluble salt crystals, hardening the material with the said layer embedded in it, and thereafter dissolving the crystals of said layer.

9. The method of surfacing tile and kindred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material while lastic a layer of solid particles which are hquefi: able superficially at least, with coloring matter irregularly distributed in said layer, hardening the material with said layer embedded in it, and thereafter'separatin from the material the said layer by liquefaction of the liquefiable particles thereof, leaving the coloring matter in the material.

10. The method of surfacin tile and kindred material, characterized by embedding inthe surface of the matepial while plastic.

a layer of solid particles which are soluble superficially at least, with coloring matter irregularly distributed in said layer, hardening the material with said layer embedded in it, and thereafter separating from the material the said layer b solution of the soluble particles thereof, lhaving the coloring matter in the material.

11. The method of surfacin tile and kindred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material while plastic a layer of soluble solid particles with coloring matter irregularly distributed in said layer, hardening the material with the layer embedded in it, and thereafter dissolving the soluble particles of the layer, leaving the coloring matter in the material.

12. The method of surfacin tile and kin: dred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material while lastic a layer of soluble salt crystals with co oring the material with the said ncrease matter irregularly distributed in said layer, hardenin the material with the said layer embedde in it, and thereafter dissolving the soluble crystals of the layer, leaving the colorin matter in the material.

13. he method of surfacing tile and kindred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material while plastic a layer of diversely sized and shaped solid particles which are iquefiable superficially at least, with coloring matter irre ularly distributed in said layer, hardening t e material with said layer embedded in it, and thereafter sep'arat-in from. the material the said layer by lique action of the liquefiable particles thereof, leaving the coloring matter in the material.

it. The method of surfacin tile and kindred materials, characterize by embedding in the surface of the material while plastic a layer of diversely sized and shaped solid articles which are soluble superficially at east, with coloring matter irregularly distributed in said layer, hardening the material with said layer embedded in it, and thereafter separating from the material the said layer by solution of the soluble particles thereof, leaving the coloring matter in the material.

15. The method of surfacing tile and kindred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material while plastic a la er of diversely sized and shaped soluble soli articles with coloring matter irregularly istributed in said layer, hardening the material with said layer embedded in it, and thereafter dissolving the soluble particles of said layer, leaving the coloring matter in the material. J

16. The method of surfacin tile and kindred material, characterized y embedding in the surface of the material while plastic a layer of diversely sized and she d soluble salt-crystals with coloring matter irre larly distributed in said layer, hardening t e material with said layer embedded in it, and thereafter dissolvin the soluble crystals of said layer, leaving te colorin'g matter in the material. c

17. Tile and kindred material, character ized by a surface'which is a matrix of a discrete layer of closely contiguous solid particles.

18. Tile and kindred material, character- Lemma sized and shaped solid particles; said surface colored in irregularly distributed patches.

21. Tile and kindred material, characterized by a surface which is a matrix of a discrete layer of closely contiguous, diversely sized and shaped, crystals.

22. Tile and kindred material, characterized by a surface which is a matrix of a discrete layer of closely contiguous, diversely sized and shaped, crystals; said surface colored in irregularly distributed patches.

23. The method of surfacing tile and kindred materials, characterized by embedding in the surface of the material While plastic a layer of solid particles, hardening the material With the layer embedded in it, and thereafter separating the particles of said layer from the material to expose the collective matrices thereof in the surface of the material.

Signed by me at Nashua, N. H., this 27th day of March, 1923.

JOHN C. MAOILDOWIE. 

